This invention relates to the field of baseball equipment, and particularly to methods and devices for placing baseball gloves in condition for use. As used herein, the term "baseball" encompasses softball, T-ball and all other variations of our national pastime in which a leather glove is used as an aid for catching the ball.
Anyone who has ever played baseball knows that a new glove, whether it be any of the various types of fielders' gloves or a catcher's mitt, is too inflexible to be put to immediate optimal use. Likewise, even a used glove which goes unused for a number of months, as is usually the case between playing seasons, will become stiff from lack of manipulation and loss of moisture in the leather. In either case, the glove must be properly "broken in," i.e., conditioned, before it will perform well.
In the well-known method for conditioning baseball gloves, one dons the glove on one hand and either repeatedly pounds the pocket of the glove with the fist of one's free hand, or repeatedly throws a baseball or softball into the pocket of the glove. A leather softening substance, such as neat's-foot oil or a lanolin-containing cream or soap, is sometimes first applied to the pocket to moisten and prevent abrasions to the leather and aid in shaping the pocket.
This known method for conditioning baseball gloves has obvious drawbacks. Pounding the pocket of the glove with one's fist is ultimately painful and potentially injurious, and that fact necessarily limits the force and number of impacts that can be applied in this manner. Repeatedly throwing a ball into the pocket of the glove is tedious and, if done indoors as it often is, risks injury to persons or damage to property from an errant throw or missed catch.